Chance and necessity in evolution are fundamental themes of biology. Adaptation is the deterministic part of this process: driven by natural selection, populations establish functional changes in response to changes in their environment and ecology. How can we understand these dynamics starting from their molecular basis, which lies in genes and their interactions? How do adaptation and functional innovation take place amidst stochastic changes of molecular evolution? How is micro-evolutionary adaptation linked to macro-evolutionary differences between species? These are the central questions addressed by CRC / SFB 680. moredeutsch